A selfie I took while going through the clean booth at FUJIFILM’s factory in Japan.
Varina and I were driving in the back of a minivan when it happened.
You never know when or where lightning will strike.
We had a couple of hours until we arrived in Omiya at the FUJIFILM factory where we’d spend the day meeting employees and learning about their manufacturing process all to dive deep into StoryFinding.
That’s when we started chatting.
We had four of five characters selected for this series of films with FUJIFILM. So I turned to Varina and asked, “If you could have anybody at all as our final character, who would it be?”
She took a moment to reply, then asked, “You mean any photographer?”
“No, this campaign is much bigger than photography–dream big, who would it be…”
She took a moment to consider the opportunity. And then she turned the tables and asked who I would choose.
Without hesitation, I knew who my pick would be. Ira Glass. The one and only. An incredible storyteller, thinker, interviewer, and somebody who surely has a whole heck of a lot to say about developing your voice as a creative.
We debated the merits of trying to bring somebody like this into the campaign as well as how we might possibly make that request.
I pulled out my phone and started to Google ‘Ira Glass Contact Info’. That didn’t work. Then I started to consider who might know Ira Glass. Who could I reach out to that could put this opportunity in front of him? So I started Googling the name and contact for his agent.
Fifteen minutes later I fired off an email sharing what we were doing, who we were, but most importantly, WHY we do what we do.
It was a fun thought exercise, and I didn’t think too much of it.
Until the next morning at 6am where I woke up in Omiya, pulled my phone from my bedside, and scrolled through my email to see this…
An email. In my inbox. FROM IRA GLASS HIMSELF.
I was so excited I sent it straight to Slack for the whole team to see.
Now, I don’t want to make it sound like it was that easy. It absolutely wasn’t.
At first, Ira thought the idea was stupid. But with enough persistence, and by making it as easy as possible for him to say yes, we eventually got there.
